1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a recording apparatus comprising a feeder for sheets to be printed and, more particularly, to a recording apparatus comprising an automatic feeder using cut sheets.
2. Prior Art
Conventionally, a method for separately feeding recording sheets such as paper from a paper feed cassette to a paper feed roller such as a platen roller one by one to perform printing has many advantages in terms of operability, low cost, and compactness of a machine, and a large number of proposals have been made.
However, in such a conventional recording apparatus, a length along a width of paper sheet, i.e., a direction perpendicular to a paper feed direction must be limited to a constant value. Such a limitation is necessary for winding a paper sheet around a platen roller without floating therefrom. Thus, a structure of a machine is complicated, and becomes bulky.
In another conventional apparatus, when a paper sheet is wound around a platen roller, a pinch roller which is urged against the platen roller is manually or automatically caused to escape from the platen roller to allow paper winding. However, even if such a structure is adopted, it is difficult to perfectly wind a paper sheet around the platen roller. After the winding operation, a correction operation must be performed.
After the winding operation, a paper sheet tends to be damaged or skewed due to a shock generated when the pinch roller is again urged against the platen roller. In addition, the mechanism and its control operation are complicated.
In particular, this tendency noticeably appears when an urging force of the pinch roller against the platen roller is increased in order to improve printing precision.